Maybe not always (This “always” depends very much on your age). Basically, Republican move downhill from a normal party to a fascist MAGA-head group started with Nixon, and got accellerated with Reagan. But most people nowadays don’t even remember the times when the GOP had been a normal party capable of doing politics with Democrats and the people, and not just against them.
I’ll do you one better. Joe McCarthy was the one who started American conservatism down the road of extremism and paranoid conspiracy theories instead of policy.
Always was.
Maybe not always (This “always” depends very much on your age). Basically, Republican move downhill from a normal party to a fascist MAGA-head group started with Nixon, and got accellerated with Reagan. But most people nowadays don’t even remember the times when the GOP had been a normal party capable of doing politics with Democrats and the people, and not just against them.
I’ll do you one better. Joe McCarthy was the one who started American conservatism down the road of extremism and paranoid conspiracy theories instead of policy.
You are not wrong here.